I imagined that by now, well into my 30s, my only skincare concern would be wrinkle prevention. But wrinkles are the last thing on my mind. Redness, irritation, hormonal acne, and sensitivity are things I struggle with more and more. I've been using the simplest bare minimum of products (Simple Moisturizing Facial Wash and Cerave PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion). Besides not being very fun, this regimen has been doing absolutely nothing as far as real skin improvement. I need to figure out how to properly exfoliate, hydrate, and heal my skin, while still keeping it from totally freaking out. I hate wasting money on products, but it's obviously I'm going to have to experiment. I figured that I might as well try to stick to natural stuff if possible. (It seems like the world is getting worse in so many ways, but the trendiness of green, eco, and non-toxic beauty does give me a little hope that it's getting better in a few ways too.)

First up, raw honey.

Spoiler: honey is not a good face cleanser.

It sounds crazy, but I've read so many people swear how using just raw unfiltered honey to wash their face has transformed their skin. I love the thought of using something so simple and natural to cleanse my face, plus I love the smell of honey so much that I would use it as perfume, so I had to give it a shot. I bought a jar of local honey (Texas Wildflower Raw - unfiltered and unheated and creamy - from Good Flow Honey Co.) for about $12 from Whole Foods. (I made sure it moved easily when I flipped the jar over, since I had read that it can be hard to spread across your face). I committed to using it for at least a whole week before making any decisions.

I really, really loved the experience of using this honey as face wash -- the smell (heavenly) and feel (mildly exfoliating) -- and I loved the way my skin felt afterwards (soft and silky). First off, I poured a small amount of the honey into a small container so that I could keep it in the bathroom and stick fingers into it without contaminating the whole jar (you know, just in case I wanted to use ther rest in my tea instead of on my face). I put my hair back, wet my face with warm water, washed my face as if the honey were actually my face cleanser, then used a washcloth and warm water to wipe it off. I used it in the morning only because I wear makeup and it seemed silly to pre-wash my face with actual face wash and then wash it again with honey. The honey was sticky, but I kinda liked having to be more mindful when washing my face to keep it from dripping everywhere. I kept using it a whole week even though I could feel my face getting clogged right away (is it possible that you can actually feel that? I swear I did). By the end of the week, my face was broken out worse than it has been in many years. Basically, honey totally sucks at actually cleaning a face. The only good thing to come from from this experiment is that I got to test a couple of new spot treatments.

What a big natural fail. I can't really be too surprised because it is a pretty counterintuitive idea, but I am jealous of the people this works for. But I mean, those people could probably wash their face with anything and have it work, right?